Modi-Xi BRICS Meeting Marks Cautious India-China Reset — SkimNews
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- Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met on Sept 12 at the BRICS summit in New Delhi — Xi's first visit to India in nearly seven years — and their 20-second handshake at the closing session on Sept 13 became an unlikely symbol of a thaw in ties long frozen since a fatal border clash in June 2020.
- India and China have since 2024 resumed border talks, restored some direct flights, and India eased certain Chinese investment restrictions imposed after the 2020 clash, though India's Ministry of External Affairs stressed that "peace and tranquility in the border areas remains an essential basis" for the relationship.
- India recently declined a proposal by Alipay, linked to China's Ant Group, to integrate with India's instant digital payments system on national security grounds, and satellite images released Sept 12 showed China advancing into "contested India border territory" in Arunachal Pradesh.
- China overtook the US as India's largest trading partner in the financial year ending March 2026, with bilateral trade reaching US$151.1 billion — even as India's trade deficit with Beijing widened to US$112.16 billion over the same period.
- China's strategic military support for Pakistan during the four-day India-Pakistan conflict in May 2025 has compounded Indian suspicion, with Fudan University professor Lin Minwang noting that "suspicion, doubt and even hostility often become the mainstream thinking" in how India approaches China policy.
- Experts including Dylan Loh of Nanyang Technological University cautioned that high-level summits "set the tone" but warned that without "routine follow-up mechanisms, military-to-military dialogue on the ground and functional working groups, agreements quickly degrade."
Why it matters: With bilateral trade at US$151.1 billion and India running a US$112.16 billion deficit with Beijing, New Delhi's easing of investment restrictions signals a pragmatic economic thaw — but its rejection of Alipay on national security grounds and satellite evidence of fresh Chinese incursions in Arunachal Pradesh show the trust deficit runs far deeper than the summit's 20-second handshake suggests.
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